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For years he battled an opiate addiction as he underwent multiple surgeries, before one day deciding to quit.

"I knew there would be life after," he says. "There was no living like this."

After recovering from a massive opiate withdrawal, he discovered medicinal marijuana, which effectively helped him manage his pain.

Then in 2014, while attending a different marijuana convention, Martinez was approached by another stranger—fellow veteran Kevin Richardson.

“Are you a veteran?” Richardson asked.

“How can you tell?” Martinez glanced down at his missing limbs and smirked.

“I can see it in your eyes,” Richardson replied. “You can tell a veteran by the look in his eyes.”

A father of four, Richardson was a federal contractor and a professional mixed martial artist who had his own brawl with pain pills he was prescribed for PTSD.

“The VA got me addicted to Viocodin,” Richardson says. “I almost lost my marriage, I almost lost everything.”

Following a suicide attempt, a fellow veteran introduced him to medical marijuana, which he says provided relief and allowed him to regain his life.

Richardson began advocating for cannabis for veterans and in 2014 launched the Weed for Warriors Project. As part of its work, the group collects donations of cannabis and makes it accessible to veterans who cannot afford it.

“We’ve helped hundreds of veterans with cannabis. We’re pretty much putting them on a mission.”

“We’ve helped hundreds of veterans with cannabis,” Richardson says. “We’re pretty much putting them on a mission.”

Richardson recruited Martinez to the Weed for Warriors Project, and they plan to take their fight for cannabis to Washington D.C. where they will dump hundreds of collected pain pills out in front of the White House.

“We want to make a political statement,” Richardson says. “It’s going to represent over-medication of our veterans.”

In Phoenix this week, they spread word of their mission at the three-day conference at the Phoenix Convention Center, 100 North Third Street. Thousands of marijuana enthusiasts gathered at the expo to sample marijuana merchandise and learn more about Arizona’s growing cannabis industry.

Martinez hopes events like this signify a turning point in how the public views medical marijuana.

“We went and fought for our country,” he says. “We just want to be free to medicate the way that we choose to.”